Vets who performed emergency surgery on a “miserable” Great Dane who could not stop retching found the cause of the animal's suffering to be the 43 socks it had eaten.

The three-year-old canine, who enjoyed chewing on socks but was not known to swallow them whole, was rushed to Portland's DoveLewis Emergency Animal Hospital in February, hospital spokeswoman Shawna Harch said.

After two hours of surgery, Dr. Ashley Magee retrieved all 43 socks from the 140-pound (64-kg) Dane.

"We see some very strange things, but this is by far the most socks we've ever pulled out of an animal," Ms Harch said after X-ray images of the dog's belly won third place in a veterinary industry competition called ‘They ate WHAT?’

The canine appeared to have penchant for coloured socks in smaller sizes, according to images of the retrieved items.

The Dane was beaten to the top spot by an X-ray of Kermit the frog who had eaten more than 30 small ornamental rocks from his owner’s garden. The rocks were safely removed and Kermit went on to make a full recovery, according to Veterinary Practice News.